


A Late Night Snack

by agentsimmons



Series: Gluten Free Waffles [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Bruce Banner Cooks, Developing Relationship, Gen or Pre-Slash, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Nightmares, Pre-Iron Man 3, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Protective Bruce Banner, Science Bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-01
Updated: 2015-09-01
Packaged: 2018-04-18 10:10:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4702160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentsimmons/pseuds/agentsimmons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four months after that first morning, Bruce begins to worry that blueberry waffles won't be enough to hold Tony together anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Late Night Snack

Bruce had been staring at the same data for about an hour. He let out a long sigh and swiped his hand across the monitor to minimize the window. He let his head fall into his hands and scrubbed a little at his tired eyes. It was beginning to become abundantly clear that no matter how hard he might try, there would never be a cure for the Other Guy.

He had hoped that maybe, just maybe, with access to a lab that Tony had graciously offered him, he might finally be able to track down a solution - not that Tony wanted him to. After four months of dead ends he was just about all out of hope. He might have a lid on it barring freak accidents, and thankfully excitement wasn’t an issue anymore, but the threat would always be there. That threat made him worry about the day SHIELD turned against him. That threat made him worry about the day his growing friendship with Tony Stark would have to end and he would have to run.

SHIELD told him he needed to stay on the grid in order to be guaranteed protection and Tony emphatically told him he would track him down if he tried it, but Bruce was no stranger to how his life worked. It was all borrowed time. Friends? Protection? The collapse of everything would be inevitable and would likely come at a time when he was most attached.

He sighed again and let his head fall back on his shoulders, looking at the ceiling without really focusing.

He knew better than to pin this all on Director Fury’s suggestion to take Stark up on his offer. He knew better than to pin this all on Tony’s stubborn loyalty that he didn’t feel he deserved. This was on him. He didn’t particularly believe Natasha when she said SHIELD had never lost him. He had enough ego and awareness to know he’d given everybody the slip for years at a time. He was damn good at disappearing when he put his mind to it. Maybe Tony would prove more of a challenge, but he could still try if he really wanted to. He just... _didn’t want to_.

He wanted to pretend he was normal. He wanted to laugh with Tony. He wanted to work in a lab. He wanted to feed Tony’s ridiculous waffle addiction. He wanted to catch up on all of the things he’d missed out on. He wanted to help Tony through his very obvious PTSD. He wanted...

In his most honest hours he could admit that mostly he just didn’t want to leave Tony.

They’d fallen into such an easy routine, it was almost alarming. It almost felt like they were platonic soul mates caught in a gravitational pull toward one another; he was certain Tony felt the same way or else he wouldn’t make such ridiculous claims about tracking him down to the ends of the earth. They had such an easy companionship and sometimes it was like their minds melded of their own accord. It was breathtaking and unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. Not even when he was a damn good scientist, and not a monster, with so much to offer the world besides gamma bombs did anyone  _ever_ look at him like he was worth something. Well, maybe Betty, but even that was a little different. Close, but different. Then again, maybe it was his fault that it was different.

Bruce shook his head of his thoughts and decided to call it a night. He had JARVIS save his work and turned out the lights. As he approached the elevator, it opened and to his surprise and then immediate distress, he saw Tony crouched in the corner and trying to push his way up the wall to stand.

“Bruce?” Tony looked up at him with glossy eyes that Bruce had come to know all too well in the past few months. “Is that you?”

He hurried into the elevator and helped him up. “Yeah, Tony. It’s me. I’m here.”

“I couldn’t breathe,” Tony whispered, closing his eyes as if to block out the painful memory. “I couldn’t… I thought I was going to… Maybe I did…”

“You’re fine. You’re safe," he said reassuringly. "I’ve got you. Everything’s fine. Take some deep breaths for me.” Tony complied, but it was strained.

Tony's nightmares were getting progressively more frequent and he was spiraling toward the stage of having a full on anxiety disorder. Bruce felt helpless to do anything about it. So he just kept his arm around him, doing what he could to at least let Tony know that he was still there.

"I need... I need to go build..." Tony didn't have to finish for Bruce to know what he meant.

He wanted to go build a suit. _Another suit_. That's all Tony had been doing lately, like a nervous tick. Bruce wasn't stupid; he understood that it was a crutch, a distraction. But he also was beginning to worry it was a trigger point and Tony didn't even realize he was hurting himself further.

He waited for Tony's eyes to refocus, for him to wake up entirely from his nightmarish state of mind. He could feel the other man's breathing growing steadier against him. Bruce knew better than to cross a line and belittle Tony with pity, but he wanted to hold him close and be the grounding force that Tony had become for him in the past few months. Tony believed in him. Tony believed in the Other Guy. Bruce wanted to give that back to him more than anything. 

"No, Tony. Not this time,” Bruce said when he was sure Tony was mostly awake and himself again. “Not tonight. Let's do something else."

“What?” Tony asked, voice also returning mostly to normal. “What else is there?”

Bruce considered the question. Any kind of work was out of the question. Sometimes they watched movies or television, but they’d learned the hard way that their usual go to favorite, Star Trek, was out of the question. An idea formed then.

“Are you hungry?” He asked, pulling away from Tony now that he could stand on his own.

Tony’s eyes lit up so quickly, it was almost comical. Only, Bruce didn’t want to laugh because he was just happy to see the light there at all. “Waffles?” Tony asked hopefully.

“Sure,” Bruce answered. “Blueberry maybe?” He smiled at the way Tony smiled and nodded.

Blueberries had become akin to a safe item for them. It was strange and had just sort of happened. It was something they shared, something that drew them back to one another, grounded them back in reality when they needed it most. Bruce knew that offering blueberries at any point was just a subtle reminder that they were both still safe and that everything was okay so that’s why he did.

When they went into the kitchen, Tony sat at the island and, per Bruce’s suggestion, pulled up a holographic screen they could watch something on while Bruce prepared the waffles. Bruce felt a sigh of relief inside that Tony’s humor had returned because the engineer turned on a cooking channel.

“Funny,” Bruce deadpanned, humoring him with ease.

“ _Hulk In The Kitchen_ is going to happen one of these days, Brucey,” he teased. “It’d be better than this.” He gestured to the screen.

Bruce paused his preparation of the waffle batter and looked at the screen with a critical gaze. At least it was a man hosting a home cooking show; it seemed that stereotypically females got those shows while men were regulated to the restaurant-based ones or the generic hosting gigs.

“I don’t know. He seems to be doing an okay job,” he said with a shrug and returned to his own cooking.

Tony snorted. “So basically you mean he’s hot.”

Bruce chuckled at the joke and made a show of glancing back over his shoulder. “Well, he looks better than I would on camera anyway.”

Tony tutted. “Bruce, we need to get your prescription checked.”

Bruce felt a familiar flush at the back of his neck. Tony made it no secret that he was of the opinion that he was hot. _Him_. He never knew whether to laugh, feel sheepish, or… He shook his head and started mixing the batter with a large spoon. When he turned around to watch the show as he did this, Tony’s eyes were on him instead of the screen and the flush returned twofold.

He tried not to pay attention to the way Tony watched him as if he was the most captivating thing in the room. He told himself not to feel weird about it. He was making blueberry ( _safe item_ ) waffles ( _comfort_ ) and stirring ( _therapeutic_ ). Finally, Tony blinked a few times and looked away.

Bruce finished mixing and set the batter aside. He then turned on the waffle maker and went through the process of oiling the griddle and waiting for it to preheat before starting the first set of waffles. As he waited for them to cook he pulled down a plate and grabbed a spatula. His mind also began to drift back to Tony and to Tony's nightmares.

Soon, he worried, this wouldn't be enough for the engineer. He was falling apart little by little and Bruce didn't have any grand delusions of being a good enough companion for the long term. Pepper was barely in New York because of most of her work being required at the Stark Industries Headquarters in Los Angeles. Bruce had the nagging feeling that it was where Tony also needed to be. If his suits were a trigger point, then there was no doubt in Bruce's mind that sleeping in the same building that had once been the power source for the portal was not doing Tony any good either.

He pulled out the first batch of waffles and set them on the plate to cool a little, almost laughing at the gluttonous look that Tony immediately sent their way. Emphasis on _almost_ since his mind was still nearly 3000 miles away in Malibu. Tony had talked about leaving for the winter, had invited him to come along (he had declined; SHIELD wanted him closer to where they could keep an eye on him anyhow), but it was already early autumn and Tony hadn't made any further indication of going home.

"So, when do you think you'll be heading back to Malibu?" Bruce asked as conversationally as he could manage while he waited for the next batch of waffles to be done, pulling out another plate for Tony as he did.

"What do you mean?" Tony questioned and when Bruce turned to hand him the plate, he saw the confused look on the engineer's face.

"I thought you were heading back for the winter to be with Pepper for the holidays and, you know, somewhere warm." Bruce kept his tone light and without pretense.

"Oh." Tony looked down at the proffered plate and took it cautiously. "Soon I guess. Sure you don't wanna come? I can show you my particle accelerator."

He wanted to sigh, but he didn't. Truth be told, he wanted to go, but shouldn't. "Again, don't think Fury would like it if I wandered that far away from HQ. We both know if Ross thought the only thing that stood between me and him was you, he'd take that chance."

"I wouldn't let him get to you, Bruce," Tony said firmly, a conviction in his strong voice that made Bruce's toes curl.

"And I'm not going to let him get to you," Bruce countered with just as much conviction. "Which is why I'm not even going to give him that chance. Besides," he shrugged, "I think the Other Guy finally feels used to it here." It wasn't a lie after all. "He hasn't been pushing as hard and I've been able to keep the lid tighter. I don't want to risk readjusting in a new place right now. This... This is nice." Of course, he knew it would be less nice without Tony around. 

He saw Tony bite at his bottom lip as he placed some waffles onto the billionaire's plate and then placed the syrup on the island. "You're right," Tony finally said with a sigh. "I won't ask you to do that. But, you know, I'm going to miss you, buddy." Tony gave a soft chuckle that Bruce thought sounded almost sad. He could relate. "It's like you said. This is nice. I'm gonna miss this."

Bruce smiled a little ruefully at that, but wouldn't beg Tony to stay. He had no right to and he would want the same freedom in Tony's position; which was still a looming probability that he didn't want to think about right now. Honestly he still didn't want to leave Tony, but he could let Tony leave.

"Well, it's not like you'll never come back, right?" He pointed out what he hoped was obvious, forcing his tone to remain light and hopeful and friendly.

This was just the normal way of things, after all. Friends go separate ways for a while and then hope to find their way back to each other, friendship still strong, when the opportunity presents itself. Why should it be any different for them? He would come back to New York since he was still an Avenger and had supposed plans for the Tower. It wouldn't be forever.

"Right. Of course, I'll come back. Maybe Pep and I will fly back here for Christmas instead," Tony suggested with a hitch of his shoulder before taking a bite of his first waffle.

Bruce smiled at the familiar sight of pleasure that washed over Tony's face as his teeth sank into the bite. For a moment he was the same man Bruce had made breakfast for nearly four months prior, happy and at peace. He would freeze the moment if he could; it was perfect.

"Still good?" He asked, hopeful smile still in place.

"No." Tony shook his head, a soft smile on his own face. "Perfect."

**Author's Note:**

> The more I read these first two fics, I'm wondering if maybe I should just make them one fic called Gluten Free Waffles instead of stand alone fics since only the first one really stands alone so far as I've mapped it out (and maybe the last when it's finished). Feedback on that would be most appreciated since I still get a little bit tripped up on AO3 when it comes to how best to format things. Thanks!


End file.
